Consulting firm KPMG’s newly appointed India chief executive, Richard Rekhy, joined the company over eight years ago. He built the firm’s business in India advising companies on business strategy into one of the largest in the country. Today, half of KPMG’s India revenues comes from consulting, with other business coming from accounting services and research. Mr. Rekhy, a 52-year-old Punjabi who grew up in Delhi and Mumbai, donates to support education in India, which he sees as crucial for the country’s development. In an interview with India Real Time’s Megha Bahree, he talks about corruption in India, the government’s bid to improve corporate transparency and the future he is planning for the company. Edited excerpts:

WSJ: What do you think of the proposed amendments to the Companies Bill of 2011? (The amendments, intended to improve corporate governance, have been passed by the lower house but not yet the upper house of Parliament.)

Mr. Rekhy: This bill is a step in the right direction. But it comes with penalties for auditors that weren’t there earlier. Those provisions can be misused. For instance an auditor can be arrested. Let’s understand who has committed the scam. Even in the case of Satyam Computer Services, the promoter is out of prison, but the auditor is still in jail. As a country, I’m not sure if we’re mature enough to deal with this. It should not be misused. (Satyam’s founder and former chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, admitted in 2009 to overstating profits and running a fictitious cash balance of more than $1 billion. He is out on bail, awaiting trial.]

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WSJ: Is there any other aspect of the bill that you find troubling?

Mr. Rekhy: The companies bill has been 10 years in the making. Under the new bill, the government can interfere in managerial remunerations. We have enough regulation in this country. The country needs more enforcement. See the outrage in the Delhi rape case. That’s because we don’t have enforcement. We are becoming a jungle of regulations. A lot of foreign investors don’t understand this country because of that. India is a good story, a consumption story, but the process of setting up a business takes a long time. That becomes a deterrent for people. Investors are saying where do I get the maximum returns for my dollars and India has to fight for its place today.

WSJ: What are your views on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail?

Mr. Rekhy: Multi-brand retail is a term that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. Everywhere else they are known as supermarkets. India invents its own terms. These guys will buy from farmers directly, he gets more money in his hands, they’ll create more infrastructure.

WSJ: How do you rate India’s attempts to clean up corruption?

Mr. Rekhy: The government has to wage a war on corruption which exists at different levels. We need to remove all human intervention. We need to computerize everything. Companies should be able to make an application online and get it back in one week. This can help remove a lot of day-to-day corruption. The government also needs to look at the compensation packages. Look at the living conditions of these people—they get easily tempted because they are so poorly paid. If a regulator—such as a cop or anyone in a position of power—is found guilty, he should be fired. The country has modernized but our regulation hasn’t. Two girls got arrested in Mumbai for posting a comment on Facebook and you have a cop walking around the city, shutting down bars. All these are regulations that are outdated. There are many laws in India that are defunct.

WSJ: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has said it is conducting an internal probe, including of its India operations, over alleged corruption. As more foreign companies come to India, will we see more such investigations?

Mr. Rekhy: I cannot speak about the Wal-Mart investigation, but corruption is deep rooted in our economy. What’s lobbying and what’s corrupt, there are different connotations to these topics. We need to get to the root of this, starting with the civil society in which you live. We can’t have corporate governance standards that are higher than the society’s laws. Find out why this corruption happens. You can start with transparency in the way you fund elections. The malaise is large today. The justice system too needs to move much faster today. Look at the U.S., where Rajat Gupta has been tried and sentenced. But in India, the Satyam case is still going on.

WSJ: Where is KPMG’s future business going to come from?

Mr. Rekhy: The future will be consulting. In India 50% of the revenue comes from advisory work and I expect that to grow. The growth has come from new sectors like information technology, telecom, logistics, power. Some of the new sectors that we are consulting to include healthcare, defense, outsourcing. I also expect growth from audit rotation, infrastructure, consumption, which in turn will be driven by retail opening up, financial services, which will expand with the new banking licenses, and litigations, especially on tax-related matters.

WSJ: Do you do any work with the government?

Mr. Rekhy: We’ve done some work on infrastructure and e-governance projects. We have been consultants to the Navi Mumbai airport. The government is going to be the biggest spender and we are trying to increase that business by looking at development of new cities and airports. We have a global government infrastructure practice and we are getting a lot of support from there.

WSJ: What books are you currently reading?

Mr. Rekhy: I haven’t had time for anything in the few weeks of taking over this role. But one of the books that I have really liked is “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. It taught me how do you create a movement, how do you motivate everyone to believe in one goal. Everyone at KPMG should believe that we will be the market leaders. I like to think big and dream big and achieve that. I want to grow at 30-40% and I also want to take away market share from other firms. I’m trying to build a culture that we must win every time, we should hate to lose.

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India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.